Living through war and peace: Meet a grocery store owner from Kashmir

'I am lucky to have been born in freedom, and I hope our future generations will guard it as a gift of God'

The story of Mohammad Younus Butt, who is as old as Pakistan, is the story of Neelum Valley - a narrow river valley in north-western Kashmir.

His father died three months before his birth, leaving a widow, three more sons, a daughter and a two-acre farm. He was born in Athmuqam, Kashmir, then a small and obscure village, according to BBC.

He has since lived through two more conflicts and alternating spells of peace and confrontation.



"My mother told me that I was born in the month of Inqilab (revolution)," Butt said.

"She told me it was just before the Hindu families in Keran and Tethwal started to flee across the (Neelum) river. The panic was caused by waves of armed Pathan tribal fighters who came up the river from Muzaffarabad."

PHOTO COURTESY: BBC

After a year, the fighting was over and Kashmir was divided. Athmuqam, which fell on the Pakistani side, was left to carry on with its isolated pastoral existence. Butt's earliest memories are of a place where there was not much to do.

"There was no school in the village, and hardly a literate person. If someone received a letter, they would take it to Keran (12km away), where there was a post office and they could find a clerk to read it for them."

When he was seven-year-old, his mother sent him to school. The primary school was 8km away and the middle school 4km beyond that.

"Life then was all about walking to school, walking back home, tending to cattle, helping on the farm, and finding time to play." He left school when he failed grade seven. "But I had learned to read and write. I was among the first literate people in my village," he said.

Adulthood arrived with a knock in 1962 when several things happened. After he got married to his cousin, his mother gave him money to set up a grocery shop only to die a few months later.

"She gave me 520 rupees to start the shop - it was the third shop in Athmuqam."

It was the nearest wholesale market.



Later, Butt tried his luck in local politics and was influenced by KH Khurshid, a political figure appointed by the Pakistani president back in 1959. Khurshid's career, however, was short-lived.

The year 1964 was the year Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru died, and preparations for the second war between Pakistan and India were made. When the war ended, people in Athmuqam discovered that Indian forces had moved closer and set up permanent posts on high ground opposite their village.For a while, peace prevailed. The road was extended from Nauseri to Athmuqam, and further on. Athmuqam emerged as the main town in Neelum Valley. A general hospital and several schools were built, bank branches opened and a telephone exchange was set up.

PHOTO COURTESY: BBC

"We built a new house, and all of my children - a boy and two girls - went to university," Butt said. However, more conflict was to come, with the 1989 unrest in Srinagar.

"I can't recall a worse time for Athmuqam. Everything that was built in 20 years was turned to rubble in 15 years of hostilities," he said and added the hospital was destroyed and so were the schools and colleges. Farming activity became impossible. Nearly all of the population migration to safer areas.

"Athmuqam was a lonely place then. You couldn't find a soul to talk to. My brothers went away with their families, leaving their belongings in my care."

"In this neighbourhood, only three households stayed behind. Our houses were damaged. We would eat and sleep in bunkers we had dug. Our orchards were destroyed."



"No children went to schools in those years. A whole generation missed out on education."

Since the 2003 ceasefire, much of the infrastructure has been rebuilt. A generation of educated people are now adults and the government is trying to promote the area as a tourist destination. Nevertheless, peace is brittle. One incident of cross-border fire during the season scares the tourists away for months.

PHOTO COURTESY: BBC

"Life has revived, but the danger is there all the time," said the 70-year-old.

According to Butt, his "innings" is nearing its end. He has had three operations so far, two of them during the last three years. But, he is glad that business and Athmuqam have grown.

"I'm lucky to have been born in freedom, and I hope our future generations will guard this freedom as a precious gift of God."

Kashmir has been a disputed region between Pakistan and India since independence from Britain in 1947. Two of three wars have been fought over the valley. This year both Pakistan and India celebrated 70 years since their creation as sovereign states.

This story originally appeared on BBC.